Utah and Statehood. 



Otjections Considered. 



SIMPLE FACTS PLAINLY 
TOLD. 



With a Brief Synopsis of the State 
Constitution. 



BY A RESIDENT OF UTAH. 



New /ork : 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR 
BY HART & VON ARX. 

1888. 



15 A-fh^ 



UTAH AND STATEHOOD. 



The Utah question has assumed a new phase since a constitutional 
convention, composed of "Mormons," formulated an organic act 
providing severe penalties against bigamy and polygamy, and, under 
its provisions, made arrangements to apply for admission into the 
Union as a State. The first attempt by the Mormons to obtain the 
rights and privileges of Statehood was made when they colonized 
that part of the Great American Desert now known as Utah. As early 
as 1849 they sent their delegates to Washington and applied for admis- 
sion into the Union. Utah was organized as a Territory in 1850, and 
on three occasions since then State Constitutions have been framed by 
the citizens through their elected delegates, and Congress has been 
asked to give Utah the rights and privileges of free government. This 
request has not been favorably considered, but the territorial bonds 
have been tightened, and stringent legislation has been enacted for the 
purpose of eradicating polygamy from the social system of the Terri- 
tory. Utah has often been urged to provide against polygamy by con- 
stitutional provisions, and assured that, on doing so, her claims to re- 
cognition as a free and sovereign State would no longer be disregarded. 

POLYGAMISTS OUT OF POLITICS. 

Recent laws of Congress have disfranchised every polygamist and 
all the women voters in Utah. They are out of practical politics. 
Only registered citizens can vote, and they are required to take a test 
oath that they will obey the laws of the United States, and particularly 
those against polygamy and the sexual crimes forbidden by law. The 
monogamous Mormons, then, who form the very large majority of the 
population, have now the local political control. They called the 
Convention which formulated those provisions relative to polygamy 
which Congress is called upon to consider. The delegates to this 
Convention were elected at mass meetings held in every countv, to 
which citizens of every political party and opinion were invited. The 
non-Mormons, under strong pressure from anti-Mormon leaders, re- 
frained from taking part in the proceedings. 



^o 



7) 



STATE PENALTIES AGAINST POLYGAMY. 

The new Constitution was framed July 7, 1887, and ratified by 
popular vote on the ist of August, on the basis of the Constitution 
adopted in 1882, but with the following new and important provisions : 

Art. XV. — Sec. 12. Bigamy and polygamy being considered incompatible 
with a "republican form of government," each of them is hereby forbidden and 
declared a misdemeanor. 

Any person who shall violate this section shall, on conviction thereof, be pun- 
ished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars and imprisonment for a term 
of not less than six months, nor more than three years, in the discretion of the 
court. This section shall be construed as operative without the aid of legislation, 
and the offenses prohibited by this section shall not be barred by any statute of 
limitation within three years after the commission of the offense, nor shall the power 
of pardon extend thereto until such pardon shall be approved by the President of 
the United States. 

Article XVI. relates to Amendments, and is in the usual form, but 

has the following proviso : 

Provided, That Section 12, Article XV., shall not be amended, revised or in 
any way changed, until any amendment, revision or change as proposed therein 
shall, in addition to the requirements of the provisions of this Article, be reported 
to the Congress of the United States and shall be by Congress approved and rati- 
fied, and such approval and ratification be proclaimed by the President of the 
United States, and if not so ratified and proclaimed said section shall remain 
perpetual. 

These provisions were designed to meet every objection previously 
raised against Statehood for Utah. They are rigid, severe and prac- 
tically irrevocable. The State Legislature cannot alter them. A con- 
victed polygamist cannot escape their penalties by the clemency of a 
Mormon Governor, nor can the Constitution in these respects be 
amended by a Mormon vote. 

OBJECTIONS. 

But it is now argued that these very provisions are insurmountable 
obstacles in the way to Utah's admission as a State. First, because 
they are different from anything in the Constitutions of other States. 
Second, because they limit the State sovereignty and thus place Utah 
on an unequal fooling with the existing States. Third, because future 
citizens of the State cannot be bound by present irrevocable compacts. 
Fourth, because no such powers as those sought to be vested in the 
Congress and the President are conferred by the Constitution of the 
United States. And it is intimated that the Mormons are not sincere 
in this movement ; for, it is asked, how can polygamists consistently 
legislate against polygamy .? and if the Mormons are sincere, why do 
they not abolish polygamy first and seek for statehood afterward.? and 
further, why does not the Mormon Church renounce the doctrine and 
practice of polygamy } 



Johns Hopkic- ^^^niv. Ub. 
Gift. 
JUN 20 ""'*' 



3 

These objections should be considered without prejudice. They 
directly affect the welfare of a large body of citizens, and indirectly of 
the whole United States. 

UNIFORMITY NOT REQUIRED. 

To the first objection the answer is, exact uniformity in the organic 
acts of the several States is not required by the National Constitution 
or the genius of our institutions, except in the particular that they 
must each provide for "a republican form of government," and must 
not conflict with the Constitution of the United States. The new 
Utah Constitution does provide for a republican form of government, 
it is modeled after the latest instruments of that character, and it con- 
tains nothing forbidden by or antagonistic to the " supreme law of 
the land." 

LIMITATION OF SOVEREIGNTY. 

Second, every State has had its sovereignty limited in certain re- 
spects by concessions to the General Government. This is the basic 
principle on which the several original States became united as a 
nation. That limitation has not been the same in the formation of 
every existing State. The diiference between them was not thought to 
have the effect of placing them on " an unequal footing." Examples 
of this may be found in the enabling acts of Louisiana, Indiana, 
Texas, Nebraska and other States. 

The sovereignty of Louisiana was specially limited by a provision 
in its Constitution, required by Congress as a condition to its admis- 
sion into the Union, that its public records should be kept in the 
English language. No such requirement was made of any other State, 
because there was no necessity for it. The people of Louisiana spoke 
French, and it was desirable that the records should be kept in the 
same language as those of other States. Indiana was required to have 
a Constitution not only "republican in form," but "in conformity 
with the principles of the articles of compact between the original 
States and the people and States in the Territory Northwest of the 
River Ohio, passed on the 13th of July, 1787." This bound Indiana 
not to establish slavery, and therefore limited its sovereignty in a dif- 
ferent manner to the limitations in the existing States. When Texas 
sought admission into the Union the condition was required that new 
States, not exceeding four in number, should, by the consent of the 
State of Texas, be formed out of the Territory thereof, those formed 
south of thirly-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude to be admitted 
into the Union with or without slavery as the people might determine. 



and in those north of that line slavery to be prohibited. Nebraska, 
among other conditions to admission, was required to provide in its 
constitution "by an article irrevocable without the consent of the Con- 
gress of the United States : First, That slavery or involuntary servi- 
tude shall be forever prohibited, etc." 

These citations show that new States have been admitted into the 
Union with different requirements, and with their respective sovereign- 
ties limited in differing particulars. Also, and this answers the third ob- 
jection, they were required to bind themselves and did bind themselves, 
"by irrevocable decree without the consent of Congress," to establish 
certain provisions which were binding upon future citizens of those 
States. But this was not considered as placing either of them on an 
unequal footing with other States. A special provision, then, limiting 
the sovereignty of Utah, will not be unusual in principle though it 
may be different in form to other such limitations, and will not place 
Utah on an unequal footing with other States ; and if it would, there 
is nothing in the Constitution of the United States requiring, as some 
people suppose, that new States shall be placed "on an equal footing 
with the existing States." 

POWERS OF CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT. 

Fourth. The people of Utah make no attempt to impose any duty 
upon Congress or the Executive. If there is nothing in the National 
Constitution vesting such powers in either as the Utah Constitution 
contemplates, there is nothing in that instrument that can be con- 
strued legitimately as forbidding their exercise ; and should Congress 
for any reason, or without offering any reason, refuse or neglect to act 
on a proposed amendment to the polygamy section of the Utah Con- 
stitution, the effect would simply be that the amendment would not 
be valid. So, if the President should decline to act on an application 
for the pardon of a convicted polygamist, the prisoner would have to 
serve out his term. The country would not be injured, no right 
or privilege of any State would be invaded, no prejudice or custom or 
regulation of the people of the United States would be trampled upon, 
but polygamy would remain punishable and unpardonable. This, it 
would seem, is the very result which the country desires, and is there- 
fore not open to popular objection. 

VARIOUS AMENDING PROVISIONS. 

The right to provide for the manner of amending a State Consti- 
tution rests in the people who frame and adopt it for their own gov- 
ernment. There is no constitutional regulation to establish uniformity 



in this particular. Some State Constitutions require a two-thirds ma- 
jority vote of the Legislature and of the people, others require but a 
bare majority. In the State of Delaware it is requisite that the affirm- 
ative vote shall equal a majority of the largest poll cast at any of the 
three preceding general elections. This has bound the posterity of 
the people who adopted the Delaware Constitution, and has recently 
defeated its amendment, although the affirmative votes were an immense 
majority, for they fell short, by a few hundred, of the necessary consti- 
tutional number. It is said the framers of the original provision 
boasted that they had ' ' locked the instrument and thrown away the 
key;" this was not considered an objection to the admission of Dela- 
ware, and therefore, a peculiar provision as to amendments in one 
particular should not be viewed as an objection to Utah's admission 
into the Union. 

RESERVED RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE. 

One indisputable principle remains unassailable in all the contro- 
versy that has arisen on this question : Whatever may be said as to the 
lack of power in Congress to impose unusual requirements on newly 
formed States, the people of those incipient States have the reserved 
right lo limit their own sovereignty by agreement with the General Gov- 
ernment — that is, w-ith all the existing States — and to make their own 
provisions as to amendments, pardon of convicts, etc., in anv manner 
they choose, so long as they violate no principle of the Federal Con- 
stitution. 

ARE the mormons SINCERE .'' 

The intimation that the Mormons are not sincere in making these 
constitutional provisions against polygamy is but a suspicion, or a 
conjecture. It is not an argument, and does not rise even to the dig- 
nity of a prediction. No one can tell what the State officials will do 
until the State is admitted and opportunities are afforded them to act. 
There is no more substantial reason to assert that the Slate of Utah 
will not be governed by the provisions of its own Constitution than 
there is to say this of any other State. The history of the IMormon 
people is fatal to this bare suspicion. In the financial and commercial 
world their business obligations stand unimpeached. Trade with them 
is eagerly sought, and their reputation for meeting their engagements 
is unexcelled. This is endorsed by the best houses and corporations 
in the country. It is admitted by the most pronounced anti-Mormons, 
and cannot be controverted. The Government has shown its estimate 
of Mormon character by offering freedom from imprisonment to 



Mormons convicted of supporting and living with their plural wives, 
who would promise to obey in future the laws as construed by 
the Courts. Their verbal agreement was considered a sufficient 
guaranty of future conduct. And the fact that most of those con- 
victed persons declined to give their word to something they could not 
conscientiously perform, as it would involve the repudiation and 
abandonment of women and children to whom they were bound by 
powerful obligations, and thus refused liberty at the expense of honor, 
speaks volumes in support of their sincerity, and gives striking evidence 
and solid assurance that they will live up to their expressed agreements. 
Congress cannot consistently refuse a large body of citizens the 
common rights of large communities in this free land, on a mere con- 
jecture. Without substantial reasons for predicating Punic faith on 
the part of the Utah people, the possible repudiation of their own en- 
actments is not to be evoked as an imaginary spectre to increase pre- 
judice and frighten statesmen into an act of political injustice. The 
legal and logical presumption is, that the people who have framed and 
adopted the provisions which have been demanded by public sentiment 
will enforce them as part of the supreme law of the State in the same 
manner as all other laws are executed. This is all that should be 
required or will be expected by reasonable men in or out of Congress. 

ARE "POLYGAMISTS FORBIDDING POLYGAMY.''" 

The idea that in this movement for Statehood "polygamists are 
legislating against polygamy "is a great mistake. The Convention 
that framed the Constitution and the 13,195 male citizens who voted 
for its adoption, are not, and have not been polygamists. They had 
all taken the oath provided in the Act of Congress of March 3, 1887, 
which excludes from the polls all persons who have violated the laws 
relating to polygamy, and who will not swear they will obey the laws 
in future. They represent the great majority of Utah's population. 
They are the voting power of the Territory. The total vote of all 
classes at the last General Election was but 16,640, the reduction hav- 
ing been caused by previously mentioned restrictive congressional laws. 
When these people, then, are asked to put away polygamy before 
seeking for Statehood, their reply is: " We have never entered into it, 
we do not propose to enter into it ; we ask for our rights as American 
citizens who have broken no law, and who have done all that is possi- 
ble to uphold and perpetuate the law." 

THE IMMEDIATE SUPPRESSION OF POLYGAMY. 

There is much more involved in the summary abolition of polyga- 



my than is thought of by those who demand it before Utah is admitted 
into the Union. Relationships have been formed during the past forty 
years — many of them before there was any statute of the United States 
against polygamy, which cannot be destroyed or ignored. There are 
plural wives to be supported, children to be provided for and educated, 
many family interests to be considered. Social chaos is not desirable. 
Cruelty and wrong are not demanded by the rational and humane. 
The discontinuance of polygamous marriages is what the country asks 
for, not the destruction of homes and the misery of the innocent. 
This is provided for in the Utah Constitution as strongly and 
eflfectually as it can be done by statute. No objector has yet been 
able to show what more in this direction the voting citizens of Utah 
can do. It cannot be expected that an organic act will be turned into 
a full code of laws on any subject. Offences growing out of the poly- 
gamous relation must be left to the treatment of the Legislature. En- 
actments against unlawful cohabitation and sexual crimes of different 
grades are not exactly suitable to a State Constitution, the provisions 
of which are general. 

THE CHURCH AND THE STATE. 

It must be obvious to every reflecting mind that the Mormon 
Church can cut no figure in this political movement. The Govern- 
ment of the United States cannot treat with a Church. Congress can 
make no compact with an ecclesiastical organization. The Mormon 
Church has not interfered in this matter, and it has no business to in- 
terfere. One of the provisions of the new Constitution is : 

There shall be no union of Church and Stale, neither shall any Church 
doaiinate the State. 

What people hold as a matter of belief is not to be considered 
in a matter of legislation. So long as unlawful overt acts are not 
committed, faith in any form is perfectly free under the National 
Constitution. This is not a question of religion but of politics. The 
law-abiding voters of Utah as citizens, not as members of a Church, 
ask for the rights and privileges of citizens, and offer the best guaranty 
in their power of their devotion to the institutions of the country ; that 
is, their past conduct and the solemn compact for the future contained 
in the proffered Constitution. Nothing can be urged against their 
plea that will stand the test of reason or obtain support from precedent. 
Prejudice alone can prevail in refusing their fair request. Justice cries 
aloud in their behalf Wisdom suggests the sound policy of settling a 
vexed question in the only effectual way, the republican way, by trans- 
ferring it from national to local means of solution. 



THE PROPOSED SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT. 

The proposition to postpone the admission of Utah until an 
amendment is made to the National Constitution providing against 
polygamy, will be seen on examination to be inexpedient. Every 
State in the Union has already protected monogamy by law. Utah, it' 
admitted, will be more pronounced against polygamy than the other 
States, having made it penal by Constitutional provisions. Thus the 
whole country will be united on this question without further action, 
and the Federal Constitution will not be hampered with a needless 
amendment, nor commence to interfere with matters which properly 
belong to the individual States. When Congress is armed with power 
to intrude into those domestic affairs of the several States which pecu- 
liarly belong to their respective jurisdictions, a dangerous change will 
have taken place in the very genius of our system of government. It 
will be time enough to consider the propriety of such an amendment 
as that proposed, when a State of the Union establishes polygamy by 
law or neglects to enforce constitutional or legislative provisions for its 
suppression. 

CONDITION OF UTAH. 

The population of Utah numbers nearly 200,000. It is composed 
of industrious, thrifty and temperate people, the masses of whom have 
not violated the laws of the United States. They have given ample 
proofs of their capacity for self-government. Their Territory is out of 
debt. Their cities and towns, their farms and fields, their factories 
and workshops, their trade and commerce, their order and co-opera- 
tion, speak eloquently for their vigor, enterprise and skill. They have 
been the pioneers of civilization in the Great West. They have carved 
a State out of a desert and made possible the speedy establishment of 
several States in the surrounding wilderness. The anomalous territo- 
rial system cannot be much longer maintained, and to deny them the 
common privileges of citizens under the Constitution of the United 
States would appear to everybody with reason as unnecessary and un- 
just, if it were not for the social custom which has been actually prac- 
tised by but comparatively few of their number. This they now propose 
to punish by local regulation. They mean what they say. No one 
can doubt this who has made impartial personal inquiry. The mo- 
nogamists, who alone hold the political power, declare they will rigidly 
enforce the anti-polygamy provisions. The disfranchised pol3'gamists 
say they expect those provisions to be enforced and will accept the 
situation. 



A GRAND OPPORrUNITY. 

This is the great opportunity for which the most thoughtful of our 
national statesmen have been waiting. It will relieve the country of 
an embarrassing and perplexing problem. There is no other way to 
settle it effectually. Admit Utah into the Union with State provisions 
against bigamy and polygamy, and the object desired will be achieved. 
Reject her, after her people have yielded to the wishes of the Nation, 
and what good result will be accomplished.? There is something 
more involved than the admission of a new State into the Union ; it 
is the settlement of a question that has puzzled legislators, philoso- 
phers, social scientists, and thinking people in every part of the 
country. Now is the time to dispose of it in a peaceful, constitutional 
and rational manner with a due regard both for the interests of a large 
body of citizens respectfully asking for political liberty, and of this 
great nation which should l)e just and can afford to be generous. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE UTAH STATE CONSTITUTION. 



The Constitution of the State of Utah, in its Bill of Rights, forbids 
the union of Church and State ; the domination of the State by any 
Church ; a religious test for voters, office-holders or witnesses ; ex- 
cessive bail ; laws abridging the freedom of speech or of the press ; im- 
prisonment for debt; discrimination against foreigners as to rights of 
property, &c. 

It protects the right to worship God according to the dictates of 
conscience ; the right of trial by jury — five-sixths may render a verdict 
in civil cases; representation according to population; the uniform 
operation of general laws ; the security of citizens against searches and 
seizures, &c. 

The suffrage is given to male citizens of the United States of the 
age of twenty-one years and over, unless convicted of treason or felony, 
who have resided in the State six months and in the voting precinct 
thirty days next preceding any election, and who have been lawfully 
registered ; all elections to be by secret ballot. 

The Legislature to be composed of a Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives, chosen biennially by the qualified electors of their respective 
districts. The senators to hold office for four years : their number at 
first to be twelve and afterwards not more than thirty. The represen- 
tatives to hold office two years, their number to be double that of the 
senators ; vacancies to be filled by election ordered by the Governor. 
The usual provisions are made for the regulation of the Legislature, 
passage and approval of bills, &c. 

The executive power is vested in a Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor, having the customary authority, and a Secretary of State, 
Treasurer, Auditor, Surveyor-General and Attorney-General, all to be 
elected at the same time, whose respective duties are defined as in other 
States. 

The judiciary is to be composed of a supreme court, circuit courts, 
and such inferior courts as may be established by law. The supreme 
court to consist of a chief justice and two associate justices, with 
appelate jurisdiction under the laws of the State and original jurisdic- 
tion as to writs of mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, quo warranto, 



11 

habeas corpus, etc. Four judicial circuits, to be increased in number 
as may be necessary, with a judge in each, holding chancery and 
common law jurisdiction and the usual powers of such courts. The 
senators, and executive and judicial officers to be qualified electors 
who have attained the age of twenty-five years, and, except at the first 
election, have been residents of the State for two years. 

Uniform and equal taxation is provided for, and restrictions made 
against State assumption or guarantee of county, city, town, village, 
corporation or individual debts, and any State debt above three per 
cent, of the taxable property. 

Provision is made for a uniform system of public schools, in which 
no sectarian or denominational doctrine shall be taught, and no teacher 
employed or rejected on account of his belief in or connection with 
any creed or sect. A State university is provided for and also the 
education of the blind and mute, as well as institutions for their care 
and of the insane and the indigent ; also for State and County prisons. 

The boundaries of the State are to be those of the Territory, the 
seat of government at Salt Lake City ; a plurality of votes to constitute 
a choice at elections ; no person to be eligible to office who is not an 
elector and does not take an oath to support the Constitution of the 
United States and of Utah, and faithfully discharge the duties of his 
office. 

Bigamy and polygamy are forbidden and made punishable by fine 
not exceeding one thousand dollars and imprisonment for not less 
than six months nor more than three years ; no statute of limitations 
to bar prosecution within three years after the offence, and no pardon 
to apply unless approved by the President of the United States. 

Amendments to the Constitution may be made by a majority vote 
of both houses of two succeeding Legislatures, and of the qualified 
electors voting thereon. But any amendment of the polygamy section 
is to be invalid without the ratification of Congress and proclamation 
by the President of the United States. 

All rights, actions, prosecutions, judgments, claims, contracts, &c., 
under the Territory are to be continued as if no change had taken 
place, and all fines, penalties, recognizances, etc., are to hold good. 

Representative districts are arranged and provisions made for the 
first election under the State, and all interests protected during the 
change from a territorial to a State government. 



iLS?""^ OF CONGRESS 

Pii 

017 055 970 8, 



